Barron’s Briefs

Jobs: November jobs numbers are released at 8:30 a.m. this morning. Economists are looking for 190,000 jobs to be added. Wage growth will be a key item to watch. In October, average hourly earnings grew 3.1%. That was the best growth since 2009.

A Strategy Shift? Altria
(ticker: MO) announced it is investing in Canadian cannabis company
Cronos
(CRON). The maker of Marlboro cigarettes will invest $1.8 billion at 16.45 Canadian dollars per share. Cronos stock closed at C$13.98 on Thursday. Pot stocks have had an interesting week after
Aphria
(APHA) was the target of a short seller’s presentation on Monday. That stock is down 30% week to date.

Upgrades and Downgrades:Tesla
(TSLA) was upgraded at Jefferies Friday morning. And the broker’s price target went from $360 to $450 per share. Tesla is always a controversial stock, with 13 Buys, 10 Holds and 14 Sells, according to Bloomberg. No less than 17% of Tesla’s shares outstanding have been sold short. In other news, Wolfe Research is getting a little more conservative on airlines. The firm upgraded low-cost operator
Southwest Airlines
(LUV) and downgraded
American Airlines
(AAL).

Tibor Kárpáti

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